Summary

The speaker is in love, but cannot show it. She is "forced to seem to hate" the person she loves (2). In these contradictions, she feels turned away from herself. Her sorrow follows her everywhere, like her own shadow. She can find no way to stop thinking of her beloved. She wishes she could find a softer love that could endure, or, alternately, feel "more cruel" and treat love as something negligible (21). She wishes she could either be content with a requited love, or forget about love altogether.

Analysis

“On Monsieur’s Departure” is a poem that has generally been interpreted as a historical or biographical document. That is, it is of interest mostly because of what it might say about Elizabeth I, her feelings, and her reign. Elizabeth’s romantic and marital choices were both the personal decisions of one of history’s most...